The head's role in blocking and tackling in the sport of football has been the subject of concern for decades. Spearing—the act of one player intentionally driving the top their helmet into another player—was once allowed. But in 1976, after athletes suffered injuries including spinal cord injuries, the NCAA and National Federation of State High School Associations banned the practice. Safety concerns relating to tackling in football continue, however. Serious neck/spinal cord injuries from tackle football are often caused by axial loading as a result of head-down contact. For that reason, current considerations of proper football blocking and tackling technique direct that the player's head should remain upright or erect at the point of contact. See, e.g., Heck, Clarke, Peterson, Torg & Weis, National Athletic Trainers' Association Position Statement: Head-Down Contact and Spearing in Tackle Football, JOURNAL OF ATHLETIC TRAINING, 39(1), 101-111 (2004).
Proper technique and positioning is important for safe participation in many contact sports, including without limitation, American football, rugby, hockey, lacrosse, and other sports. Training of proper heads-up tackling and blocking technique, however, is not well supported by any known device or apparatus. It has now been recognized that a need exists for a way to train athletes in proper “heads-up” tackling and blocking technique. It is to the provision of a training apparatus and method for training athletes proper “heads-up” technique in football tackling and blocking, and in other contact sports and activities, meeting these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.